Video Portal Provider Qumu Adds Speech Search

According to business video platform provider Qumu, three-quarters of a company’s business knowledge is spoken in meetings, not written down. When those meetings are video recorded, finding that knowledge has traditionally required that the videos first be transcribed into searchable text. Qumu is removing that step, by adding Speech Search to its video portal.

The company said this week that its Video Control Center now has the ability to search for spoken words in a video, via whatever device the searcher prefers. Speech Search indexes all the videos in the portal so they can be searched for a spoken word or phrase. Multiple videos can be searched at once, and if workflow rules are set, certain spoken words can be searched automatically.

Simultaneous Text/Speech Search

Additionally, text and speech can be searched simultaneously. The Qumu Video Control Center provides a platform for the lifecycle of video in the enterprise -- from creation to use. It features a centralized video library, the ability to offer live or on-demand video to an unlimited number of recipients on any kind of device and a branded portal to watch live webcasts, access training videos or share content generated by employees.

Vern Hanzlik, Qumu’s Executive Vice President and General Manager, said in a statement that, “with every spoken word from video being indexed automatically to a federated knowledgebase, employees get access to more information assets,” which increases their productivity and enhances knowledge management.

The ability to search videos for spoken content has existed in various forms for years. Google, for instance, started offering limited speech recognition for YouTube videos in 2008.

Potential Differentiators

As speech recognition improves, differentiators for speech searching in video and audio recordings could include such advances as contextual awareness, integration with knowledge management systems and, potentially, an ability to utilize the gleaned information from video postings by customers in a customer relationship management or customer service context.

With personal video communication having become so common, the emphasis by customer service centers and CRM systems on social media could well mean a race to provide new, meaningful functionality for understanding what customers are saying in their video postings -- leading to increased capabilities inside the enterprise.

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